Who says that The Orchard Church only has morning services??
Morning Worship
Our setup crew met at 6AM as usual, surprised to find a lot of OUR job had been done by the cleanup crew the night before. Thanks for the blessing! We had a great morning service, with Doug Moore, our resident “youth guy” bringing the THIRD message in the SHIFT series, about serving. As usual, Doug did a great job. Here is a quick rundown:
- Great message, Doug!
- Setup time DRASTICALLY reduced with help from Sat Nite Cleanup Crew!
- The band keeps blowing me away
- (hopefully) the last round of family vacations taking place, so all our team members can get back to being together.
- I love hanging out in the lobby before the service. It is great to meet new friends and hang with older ones.
- Dennis Bailey has installed some new lighting in the theater lobby… It looks awesome!
- The other movie theater improvements are really coming along very nicely. Have you SEEN those MURALS??
- Tracy Crook is simply amazing.
- Camp Highland Staff made my day!! They all jumped right in and helped us tear out all our Sunday morning stuff so we could get to the funeral home. Wow!
- Still meeting lots of “first time guests” each week. Always very exciting!
Afternoon Funeral Service
After the service, Casey, Rachel, and I headed straight over to the funeral home to help out. The funeral was beautiful and very touching. Family and friends all gathered around Mike and Christy to love, pray for, and otherwise support them as they continue to grieve the loss of their little girl. Jill Crook read a poem that she wrote that was very, very touching. Rachel worked really hard on an excellent video slideshow that was played before the service began. All was very moving. Mike and Christy send their thanks to all the Orchard family who have helped out in their time of grief and need.
Evening Worship
After a short break, we were off to Camp Highland, where Casey and Rachel led in some worship. Zac from the staff there had set up a really cool outdoor candle-lit worship time overlooking Carter’s Lake. It was really unique and special. It was a fantastic time of quiet prayer and meditation and corporate worship. I hope it was a blessing to Camp Highland. I know they have been a huge blessing to us this summer. The staff wraps up their final week of camp next week, before going back to their homes. We will miss you guys, and we hope each of you will return to visit us in Ellijay!